Summer Sandcastle Centerpiece

Summer Sandcastle Centerpiece

Summer is technically still a month away, but you wouldn't know it from where I live. It has been HOT. I see on Facebook that some friends are still dealing with snow, or at least they were just a couple of weeks ago, and meanwhile I'm breaking out the lemonade and sitting under fans. So I guess I've had a bit of a jump start on thinking about what I want to do for the summer, which means that for once I'm out early enough for you to have time to do it to.

I don't really have any decor for summertime. You all know I'm crazy for Christmas, and Thanksgiving and Halloween get special attention, but the rest of the year doesn't bring much change. Now that Atti's in school, I've been paying a little closer attention to the changing seasons and wanting to celebrate all the ones I've been ignoring. This little foam sandcastle is my first nod to bringing a little of this season indoors.

I bought craft sand, but you could always use sand from whatever beach you like best, or even from your backyard sandbox. Then you'll just need some white glue and a bunch of this green floral foam. Not the white styrofoam, you definitely want the green stuff.

The green foam, as opposed to the other kinds, cuts beautifully. I just used a regular kitchen knife and chopped a brick into pieces to make myself some building blocks.

Then you take your building blocks, assemble them into a castle shape and glue them together. This design took five bricks. Two stacked for the middle, two upended for each tower, and then one cut into pieces to make all the turrets.

To make it look even more like a sandcastle, I needed to make some doors and windows. That's super easy with this green foam. All you have to do is use your finger to indent the foam and what you've pressed crumbles away.

Make sure you brush off all the foam dust from your arches before you start gluing. Then cover the whole building with glue, sprinkle the sand on the top, shake off the excess and let it dry thoroughly.

I used two coats of sand, which worked out nearly perfectly to be one of the bottles I bought. If you want to dress this up a little more you could mix a little glitter in with the sand you're using, or seal it with a coat of spray glitter.

Since this is basically the easiest version of building blocks ever, this is a great project for kids. I bet some real lego enthusiasts could come up with a version that would blow mine out of the water.

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